Apple scored a major victory in its ongoing battle against Samsung on Tuesday when U.S. District Judge Judy Koh announced a ruling granting Apple’s request for a preliminary injunction that will ban sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the United States while the lawsuit proceeds.

Samsung’s new Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, which the South Korean company released last month, will not be affected by the injunction.

“Although Samsung has a right to compete, it does not have a right to compete unfairly by flooding the market with infringing products,” Judge Koh wrote. “While Samsung will certainly suffer lost sales from the issuance of an injunction, the hardship to Apple of having to directly compete with Samsung’s infringing products outweighs Samsung’s harm in light of the previous findings by the court.”

Koh’s ruling is a preliminary injunction, and undoubtedly, Samsung is already working on an appeal. However, even if the injunction is not granted, it does hint at the direction that Koh is leaning in the case. It’s not looking good for Samsung.

The injunction will be in place as soon as Apple puts up a $2.6 million bond to protect Samsung if the court later decides that the injunction was wrongly granted.